Legal text distribution and processing in mobile broadcasting

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for processing and distributing legal text information allow content providers to distribute legal text to terminals receiving broadcast content. The legal text may include terms and conditions associated with content that a user may want to purchase or subscribe. Upon receiving a content selection that a user wishes to purchase, a terminal may determine whether the content is associated with legal text information. If so, the legal text may be obtained and rendered for the user. The terminal may further determine whether user consent is required and if so, prompt the user with a consent agreement. Legal text information may be obtained in a variety of manners including from a service provisioning system, from a local cache in the terminal and/or from a file delivery server. Communication of legal text information may further be conducted using messages storing legal text attributes and elements.

FIELD OF ART

The invention relates generally to a method and system for distributinglegal text. Specifically, the invention relates to a system and methodfor providing legal text for content and services available in broadcastnetworks.

BACKGROUND

The purchase of and subscription to digital content is often accompaniedby terms and conditions to which a purchaser or subscriber must agreeprior to completion of the transaction. Terms and conditions may includecopyright and licensing agreements, payment agreements and the like. Thelegal text associated with the terms and conditions must typically bepresented to the purchaser or subscriber for his or her perusal in orderfor the terms and conditions to be legally binding. In one example,customers purchasing digital content on the Internet are usuallyrequired to view and agree to terms and conditions that includecopyright notices. That is, the customers must agree not to use thedigital content illegally (e.g., in violation of the content'scopyright) prior to being allowed to download or view the content. Inmany instances, the customer is required to acknowledge that he or shehas reviewed and agreed to the terms and conditions.

With the increasing demand for mobile digital broadcasting, support forthe distribution and enforcement of legal text is needed to insure thatbroadcast content is not misused or misappropriated. Current digitalbroadcast networks and systems generally do not provide legal textsupport in the distribution of broadcast content. As such, contentproviders might not be able to claim violation of terms and conditionsof a purchase or subscription and/or receive compensation for theviolation.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. The Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

A legal text distribution and processing system allows a contentprovider to distribute legal text to a terminal prior to or inassociation with a content purchase or subscription. A legal textprovider may initially create purchase fragments including the legaltext information and one or more attributes such as a content ID, avalidity date range, a country code, a language associated with thelegal text and the like. The purchase fragments may be sent to anelectronic service guide (ESG) provider that may then associate thepurchase fragments with particular content items and/or channelsincluded in the service guide information. A terminal receivingbroadcast content may then receive the electronic service guideinformation and display the information to a user. Upon the userselecting a program for purchase, the terminal may determine whether theprogram is associated with a legal text element. If so, the terminal mayfurther determine whether the legal text element includes the legal textto be rendered. If the legal text to be rendered is included, the textmay be rendered for the user prior to completion of the purchase. If thelegal text is not included in the legal text element, the legal text maybe retrieved using a legal text identifier such as a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) or Identifier (URI).

According to one or more aspects, legal text may be retrieved from alocal cache in the terminal. For example, if the terminal previouslyreceived the legal text, the terminal may have stored the legal text ina local cache and in association with a legal text URL or URI. As such,using the legal text URI or URL found in the legal text element, thelegal text to be rendered may be identified and obtained from the cache.Alternatively or additionally, a terminal may obtain legal text to berendered from a remote source such as a content server associated withthe URL or URI and/or a file delivery server. For example, legal textmay be delivered by the file delivery server in a carousel-like mannerusing File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) sessions. Ineither case, the URL or URI may be used as a key for identifying theappropriate legal text. If the legal text to be rendered was notpreviously stored on the terminal, the terminal may cache the legal textupon obtaining the text to be rendered.

According to another aspect, the terminal may further determine whetheruser consent is required for the legal text. For example, a user may berequired to consent to payment agreements and/or licensing agreementsprior to receiving the requested content. If consent is required, theterminal may require the user to give consent to continue the purchasetransaction. Otherwise, the transaction may be terminated. If consent isnot required, however, the purchase transaction may continue processingwithout having to request and receive consent from the user.

According to still another aspect, legal text data and transactionmessages may be communicated using various types of packets. Thesepackets may include service guide delivery descriptors, purchase datafragments, purchase item fragments, purchase channel fragments andservice provisioning messages. In one example, purchase item fragmentsmay include legal text and parental rating information associated with aselected content item. In another example, purchase channel fragmentsmay be sent to a terminal for characterizing a purchasable orsubscribable broadcast channel. Each type of packet may includeattributes and events that define characteristics of the associatedchannel, content or message and/or the purchase thereof.

According to yet another aspect, a broadcast network supporting legaltext distribution and processing may include a service provisioningsystem that processes purchase and pricing responses and requests to andfrom a terminal. The service provisioning system may further providelegal text information including a legal text URI or URL, user consentinformation and/or legal text to be rendered in a response to a purchaseor pricing request.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary of the invention, as well as the followingdetailed description of illustrative embodiments, is better understoodwhen read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which areincluded by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard tothe claimed invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a broadcast network architecture in which one or moreaspects described herein may be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for processing legal text ina broadcast network according to one or more aspects described herein.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for delivering legal textinformation to a terminal according to one or more aspects describedherein.

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a service guide deliverydescriptor (SGDD) data structure for distributing electronic serviceguide information according to one or more aspects described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates a purchase item fragment data structure according toone or more aspects described herein.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate two purchase data fragment structuresaccording to one or more aspects described herein.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of a purchase channel fragmentstructure according to one or more aspects described herein.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C and 8D illustrate various types of service provisioningmessages according to one or more aspects described herein.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile terminal according to oneor more aspects described herein.

FIG. 10 illustrates a system for distributing legal text informationaccording to one or more aspects described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of various illustrative embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a parthereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, variousembodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural andfunctional modifications may be made without departing from the scope ofthe present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a broadcast network system 100 including terminal105, electronic service guide (ESG) provider 110, file delivery server115, service provisioning system 120 and legal text provider 125. Eachof the ESG provider 110, file delivery server 115 and serviceprovisioning system 120 may be connected to terminal 105 through one ormore network connections. Terminal 105 may comprise a mobile terminal,cellular phone, wireless personal data assistant (PDA), laptop ordesktop personal computer (PC) and the like. The network connections maybe established using a variety of communications systems includingvarious Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) systems, Third GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service(MBMS), Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) Broadcast andMulticast Service (BCMCS), MediaFLO, wireless local area networking(WLAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and/orTerrestrial/Satellite-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T/S-DMB). Forexample, a connection between terminal 105 and ESG provider 110 may beestablished using DVB-Handheld (H) system. Accordingly, terminal 105 maycommunicate with ESG provider 110 (or vice versa) using InternetProtocol datacasting (IPDC) over either DVB-H or various DVB systems-.Connections between each of systems 110, 115 and 120 and terminal 105may be either bidirectional or unidirectional depending on the needs andfunctions of each system. In one or more configurations, broadcasts overone or more of the above systems may be performed using Open MobileAlliance (OMA) BCAST. Further details regarding various aspects of OMABCAST may be found in OMA document ‘Mobile Broadcast Services’ DraftVersion 1.0—19 Apr. 2006; OMA-TS-BCAST_Services-V1_(—)0-20060419-D andin OMA document ‘Service Guide for Mobile Broadcast Services’ DraftVersion 1.0—12 Oct. 2006OMA-TS-BCAST_ServiceGuide-V1_(—)0_(—)0-20061012-D.

Legal text provider 125 may be connected to each of ESG provider 110,file delivery server 115 and provisioning system 120 through eitherwired or wireless network connections using one or more of the protocolsdescribed herein. In one or more configurations, legal text provider 125might not maintain a direct connection with terminal 105. As such, datasuch as legal text may be transmitted through an intermediary systemlike ESG provider 110, file delivery server 115 and/or provisioningsystem 120. Data typically transmitted from systems 110, 115 and 120 toterminal 105 may be configured such that legal text data is incorporatedinto the data transmission from systems 110, 115 and 120. Legal textprovider 125 may be configured to provide legal information associatedwith various types of broadcast content. For example, a movie broadcastover a network may be subject to a copyright agreement. As such, theagreement may be provided by legal text provider 125. Legal textprovider 125 may further perform enforcement functions. In one example,a user of terminal 105 may purchase a movie at a discounted rate and inexchange agree to accept 2 hours worth of advertising. In such aninstance, legal text provider 125 may monitor advertising informationaccepted by terminal 105 and enforce the agreement.

File delivery server 115 may be configured to receive and store legaltext information from legal text provider 125 and to coordinate anddistribute the information to terminal 105. Accordingly, in one or moreconfigurations, file delivery server 115 may include a database forstoring legal text information. File delivery may be conducted over filedelivery sessions using various data transmission protocols such asFLUTE and/or Asynchronous Layered Coding (ALC) to identify the databeing sent.

ESG provider 110 is generally configured to generate and provide serviceguide information and/or program specific information (PSI) to broadcastrecipients like terminal 105. Service guide information may provide timeand channel information associated with a particular program. Theinformation provided by ESG provider 110 may also include contentpurchasing information and schedules. In one or more arrangements, ESGprovider 110 may embed legal text information into service guide orprogram specific information so that, upon delivery, terminal 105 mayidentify programs that require agreements to legal text.

Service provisioning system 120 may be configured to receive and processpurchase and/or subscription requests initiated by terminal 105. Inaddition, provisioning system 120 may determine be used to enforce legaltext rules associated with certain content. For example, contentrequested by terminal 105 may be subject to a copyright agreement. Assuch, if a user of terminal 105 does not agree to the copyrightagreement, the content might not be distributed to terminal 105. Serviceprovisioning system 120 may thus evaluate terminal 105's response tolegal text and determine whether one or more legal text rules have beensatisfied. Furthermore, service provisioning system 120 may storecontent in a local database and control the distribution thereof.Alternatively or additionally, service provisioning system 120 may storeat least access information such as a location from which content may beobtained and/or access authorization data (e.g., login information).

Service provisioning system 120, file delivery server 115 and ESGprovider 110 may be separate entities or, in some instances, be combinedas components of a single server or system. If systems 110, 115 and 120are combined, a router (not shown) within the combined system (notshown) may be configured to receive information from either terminal 105or legal text provider 125 and distribute the information based on anintended destination and/or content. For example, a router in a combinedsystem may direct purchase requests to service provisioning system 120while routing legal text requests to file delivery server 115.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for accessing content havingcorresponding legal text. In step 200, a user may select a content itemto purchase or subscribe to from received ESG information. In responseto the selection, a terminal may identify a corresponding purchase itemfragment associated with the selected content from ESG information instep 205. Purchase item fragments relate to a data structure thatrepresents a group of one or more services (e.g., a service bundle) orone or more content items offered to an end user. In addition to channeland schedule information for various programs and content, ESG data mayfurther include purchase information such as cost, payment optionsand/or legal text. Accordingly, in step 210, the terminal may determinewhether the purchase item fragment of the selected content includes alegal text element. If a terminal determines that a legal text elementis not found in the purchase item fragment, the purchase or subscriptionmessage may be sent to a content provider or provisioning system in step280. If, however, a legal text element is found in step 210, theterminal may further determine whether the legal text to be rendered isstored in the legal text element in step 212. For example, legal textmay be stored as a text string attribute within a legal text element. Ifthe terminal finds the legal text to be rendered within the legal textelement, the terminal may proceed to render the legal text in step 245.For example, the legal text may be displayed on a screen of the terminalfor a user to review. If, however, the legal text to be rendered is notfound in the legal text element, the terminal may instead retrieve alegal text location identifier, e.g., a URL or URI that identifies thelegal text associated with the selected content item in step 215.

In step 220, the terminal may determine whether or not the legal text iscached in a local memory of the terminal using the legal text URL or URIas a key or identifier. If the terminal determines that the legal textcorresponding to the URL is cached in the local database, the terminalmay retrieve the legal text using the URL or other identifier and renderthe legal text in steps 225 and 245, respectively. In one or morearrangements, legal text cached in a terminal's memory may be stored inassociation with a key. The key, for example, may be a URL or URIassociated with a location at which the legal text may be found andretrieved.

If, on the other hand, the terminal determines in step 220 that thelegal text is not cached in local memory, the terminal may obtain thelegal text using one of at least two methods. One method, as illustratedin step 230, is for a terminal to retrieve the legal text by accessingthe specified legal text URL or identifier over a network connection.For example, the legal text URL may be used to access a webpage orcontent server storing the relevant legal text. Alternatively, aterminal may retrieve legal text by establishing a file delivery sessionwith a file delivery server in step 232. The file delivery session maybe established using a session identifier included in received ESGinformation. Since delivery sessions may be used for multiple types offile deliveries, a terminal may be informed when the specific deliverysession is transmitted so that the receiver can be turned on at theappropriate and corresponding time. The terminal may then request andreceive the legal text from the file delivery server using the legaltext URL in step 235. In either instance, once the legal text has beenobtained by the terminal, the legal text may be stored in the terminal'slocal memory in association with the legal text URL in step 240. Afterthe legal text is stored, the text may subsequently be rendered on adisplay for review by the user in step 245.

Upon rendering the legal text in step 245, the terminal may determinewhether or not the legal text is associated with a user consentrequirement in step 250. That is, the terminal may determine whether auser's acknowledgment of or consent to the legal text is required forsubscription or purchase of the selected content. Such a determinationmay be made based on whether a consent requirement flag is set in thelegal text element of the purchase item fragment. If user consent isrequired, the terminal may request consent from the user in step 255.For example, the terminal may display a consent request message to theuser and prompt the user for a response. Additionally, the terminal mayreceive user input corresponding to a response to the consent requestmessage also in step 255. The terminal may then determine whether or notthe user's input corresponds to consent to the legal text in step 265.If the input indicates that the user consents to the legal text, theuser's consent and the legal text identifier may be transmitted alongwith a purchase/subscription message in step 270 to, for example, aservice provisioning system. If, however, the user's input does notcorrespond to consent, the content selection and purchase sequence maybe terminated in step 275.

Alternatively, if the terminal determines that user consent is notrequired in association with the legal text in step 250, the purchase orsubscription message may be transmitted in step 280. A subscription orpurchase message may be transmitted to a content provider or anintermediary system such as service provisioning system 120 of FIG. 1where the selected content is retrieved and transmitted to therequesting terminal. Subscription and purchase messages may include avariety of information including payment information (e.g., credit cardnumbers, check numbers, etc.), authorization information, contentidentification data and/or combinations thereof.

In one or more alternate configurations, a terminal may initially send acontent item request to a service provisioning system in step 203 upondetecting a user's selection of the content item. In response to therequest, the terminal may receive a response to the request includinginformation associated with the content item such as pricinginformation, a legal text identifier (e.g., URL or URI), legal text tobe rendered and/or consent requirement information in step 206. Once thelegal text to be rendered and the legal text identifier has beenreceived at the terminal, the terminal may then cache the information inlocal memory, as illustrated in step 240. The content selection andpurchase process may proceed as described in steps 245-280.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for delivering legal textinformation to a terminal. In step 300, an ESG provider may receivepurchase item fragment information from a legal text provider such aslegal text provider 125 in FIG. 1. Purchase item fragment informationmay be updated in the ESG provider according to a predefined scheduleand/or upon new purchase item fragment information being added. In step305, the ESG provider may analyze the purchase item fragment informationto identify a program to which the fragment information corresponds.Such an analysis may include identifying a title, identifier and/orschedule information associated with the purchase item. Once acorresponding program has been identified in the ESG data, the purchaseitem fragment information may be embedded and/or otherwise associatedwith the ESG data in step 310. For example, each program entry in theESG information may include a legal text or purchase field that may beused to store the purchase item fragment information. In step 315, theESG provider may transmit the ESG information to one or more subscribingterminals such as terminal 105 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates part of a definition table for a service guidedelivery descriptor data (SGDD) structure for distributing electronicservice guide information. The SGDD stored in the data structure mayinclude one or more sub-elements such as a notification reception field,a legal text reception field and a descriptor entry. The legal textreception element may further include sub-elements such as a legal textreception port and a legal text reception address. The legal textreception sub-element may be used to configure a channel for receivinglegal text information through a network. A data type may be specifiedfor each data field. For example, the legal text reception port may beexpressed as an integer while the legal text reception address disclosedas an IP multicast address may be expressed as a string of characters.

FIG. 5 illustrates a structure of a purchase item fragment. Eachpurchase item fragment may store a variety of attributes including anID, a version, a valid from attribute, a valid to attribute, a globalpurchase item ID, a weight and a closed attribute. An attribute ‘closed’may be used to indicate that a purchase item is closed for newsubscribers, while an attribute ‘weight’ may be used to express orindicate the intended order of display (e.g., to the end user) of thecorresponding purchase item relative to other purchase items. Forexample, the valid from and valid to attribute may define a date rangeduring which the purchase item fragment is valid. Purchase itemfragments may further include sub-elements such as start time, end time,parental rating and legal text. Start time and end time, for example,specifies the start time and end time of the content item to which thepurchase item fragment corresponds. The legal text sub-element may bequalified by sub-elements and attributes including a legal text URIattribute, a user consent attribute, a country sub-element, a languagesub-element and a legal text to be rendered sub-element. A legal textURI attribute, for instance, may uniquely identify the legal text.Additionally, a user consent attribute may be used to determine whetheruser consent is required to confirm a purchase or subscription ofcorresponding content. The country sub-element may be configured tospecify one or more countries to which the legal text is applicable. Forexample, a copyright agreement may be applicable in the United Statesbut not in China. A language sub-element may be used to specify alanguage in which the legal text is provided. The value stored by thelanguage sub-element may include a three character string in accordancewith an ISO 639-2 alpha standard for language codes. Further, the legaltext to be rendered sub-element may be used to store the legal text thatis intended to be rendered by a terminal for review by a user. In one ormore arrangements, legal text to be rendered may store multiple textstrings corresponding to the same text string in multiple differentlanguages. Further, a category column may be included to indicatewhether a sub-element or attribute is optional (O) or mandatory (M) fora network (N) or a terminal (T) (e.g., NM=network mandatory, TM=terminalmandatory). Cardinality, on the other hand, may specify a number ofinstantiations of an element or sub-element that the fragmentreferences. For example, a fragment may reference a legal text inmultiple languages. As such, the cardinality column may specify thenumber of languages or instantiations of an element or sub-element thatexist.

FIG. 6A illustrates a structure of a purchase data fragment. Similar toa purchase item fragment, a purchase data fragment may includeattributes such as ID, version, valid from and valid to. Purchase datafragments may be used to represent information associated with aparticular purchase item including pricing information and promotionalinformation. Purchase data fragments may also be associated withpurchase channels. A purchase data fragment may further include a legaltext sub-element similar to the purchase item fragment. In contrast to apurchase item fragment, purchase data fragments may include a legal texttype attribute that specifies when the legal text is to be rendered anddisplayed to the user. For example, if the legal text type attribute isflagged as ‘1,’ the legal text is displayed prior to purchase and/orsubscription. In another example, if the legal text type attribute isassigned a value of ‘2,’ the legal text may be displayed prior toplaying the purchased or subscribed content or service. As such, in oneor more configurations, a terminal may evaluate a text type attributeprior to displaying the legal text to be rendered.

FIG. 6B illustrates an alternate version of a purchase data fragmentaccording to one or more arrangements. In the purchase data fragment ofFIG. 6B, the legal text element may further include a preview data IDreference. The preview data ID reference may be used to store areference to the preview data fragment that stores the legal text to berendered. Thus, if the legal text to be rendered is not stored in thepurchase data fragment, the text may be retrieved using the preview dataID reference information. A usage attribute of the preview data IDreference may specify how the referenced information is to be used(e.g., as legal text). Alternatively or additionally, the legal textelement may be stored outside of the program guide data. For example,the legal text element may be stored before or after the program guideinformation.

FIG. 7 illustrates a structure of a purchase channel fragment. Purchasechannel fragments may be used to define one or more attributes and/orelements of a channel rather than individual programs of content items.For example, a purchase channel fragment may include information aboutthe entity from which access and/or content rights were purchased. Thepurchase channel fragment may include attributes and elements similar tothose found in a purchase item or data fragment. For example, a purchasechannel fragment may include a legal text sub-element that storesattributes such as legal text type, legal text URI and user consent. Thelegal text sub-element may further include sub-elements includingcountry, language and legal text to be rendered elements.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C and 8D illustrate various types of service provisioningmessages. For example, FIG. 8A corresponds to a pricing informationresponse message. The pricing information response message includesattributes such as request ID and global status code. The request ID mayidentify the request to which the response corresponds. Global statuscodes, on the other hand, are codes for expressing the result of a querysuch as success, failure, error etc. Global status codes are furtherdescribed in OMA document “Mobile Broadcast Services,” Draft Version1.0—19 Apr. 2006, OMA-TS-BCAST_Services-V1_(—)0-20060419-D. The pricinginformation response message may further include elements such aspurchase item price, service guide fragment and legal text. The serviceguide fragment may include information or a reference to informationrelating to a portion of a service guide. For example, service guidefragments may include interactivity data, schedule information andpreview data. The purchase item price element may define the priceassociated with the content or service item. A legal text element mayinclude information such as a legal text URI attribute, a user consentattribute and sub-elements country, language and legal text to berendered.

FIG. 8B, on the other hand, illustrate a provisioning request messagestructure. Provisioning request messages may be used for a variety ofpurposes such as service requests, long-term key renewal requests andtoken purchase requests. Service requests may be used to requestsubscription to or purchase of a content item. A service request messagemay include a user consent answer element and a legal text identifierelement. The user consent answer elements may be used to store and carrya user's response to a consent requirement, while the legal text URIattribute may be used to identify a relevant legal text. A provisioningsystem may use the user consent answer to determine whether content orservices should be distributed to the terminal and user.

FIG. 8C illustrates a long-term key renewal request message structurethat may be used for renewing a content item or group of content itemsthat were previously purchased or subscribed to. Similar to the servicerequest message, a long term key renewal request message may includeuser consent answer and legal text URI elements. The long term keyrenewal request message and the various elements and attributes thereof(e.g., legal text URI elements) may be used in the event the terms andconditions associated with a service or content item has changed since aprevious update.

In another example, FIG. 8D illustrates a structure of a token purchaserequest message that may be used to purchase tokens or credits to enablefuture consumption of broadcast services or content. In addition to auser consent answer element and a legal text URI element, a tokenpurchase request message may further include a digital signatureelement. The digital signature element may be used to authenticate thepurchasing or requesting user or terminal.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a terminal such as mobile terminal105 of FIG. 1 including processor 928 connected to user interface 930,memory 934 and/or other storage, and display 936. Mobile terminal 912may also include battery 950, speaker 952 and antennas 954. Userinterface 930 may further include a keypad, touch screen, voiceinterface, one or more arrow keys, joy-stick, data glove, mouse, rollerball, touch screen, or the like.

Computer executable instructions and data used by processor 928 andother components within mobile terminal 912 may be stored in a computerreadable memory 934. The memory may be implemented with any combinationof read only memory modules or random access memory modules, optionallyincluding both volatile and nonvolatile memory. Software 940 may bestored within memory 934 and/or storage to provide instructions toprocessor 928 for enabling mobile terminal 912 to perform variousfunctions. Alternatively, some or all of mobile device 912 computerexecutable instructions may be embodied in hardware or firmware (notshown).

Mobile terminal 912 may be configured to receive, decode and processdigital broadband broadcast transmissions that are based, for example,on the DVB standard, through a specific DVB receiver 941. The mobiledevice may also be provided with other types of receivers for digitalbroadband broadcast transmissions. Additionally, mobile terminal 912 mayalso be configured to receive, decode and process transmissions throughFM/AM Radio receiver 942, WLAN transceiver 943, and telecommunicationstransceiver 944. Transceivers 943 and 944 may, alternatively, beseparated into individual transmitter and receiver components (notshown). In one aspect of the invention, mobile terminal 912 may receiveRadio Data System (RDS) messages.

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagram of a system for distributing legal textinformation through a variety of processes. Legal text provider 1025,for example, may create and prepare legal text through process a. In oneor more configurations, legal text provider 1025 may comprise at leastone of a service provider, a content provider and a service provisioningprovider that may cooperate in the preparation of one or several legaltexts. Legal text provider 1025 may further review and approve the legaltext along with any translations that may have been produced. The legaltext created and prepared by legal text provider 1025 may then bedistributed to terminal 1005 through three different processes b, c andd. For example, in process c, the legal text may be stored in a legaltext element of a purchase data fragment that is distributed throughelectronic service guide data. The legal text element may furtherinclude attributes such as type, legal text URI, user consent, countryand language. Thus, when terminal 1005 downloads or receives ESGinformation from ESG provider 1010, legal text may also be downloadedtherewith.

In another example, legal text prepared according to process b may bedistributed in a carousel-like manner in FLUTE sessions through filedelivery server 1015. In one or more arrangements, file delivery server1015 may prepare each legal text translation in a separate file. Assuch, each language version of the legal text may be separatelyidentifiable by a URI. Alternatively, multiple translations of the samelegal text may be delivered as one file having a single URI. Filedelivery sessions may be announced through ESG information distributedby ESG provider 1010.

In yet another example, legal text may be distributed by serviceprovisioning system 1020 through process d. Service provisioning system1020 may receive legal text information including legal text to berendered and one or more applicable rules regarding the use of the legaltext from legal text provider 1025. The legal text information may thenbe associated with and/or stored in a purchase item fragment associatedwith a content item and/or service item. Accordingly, when terminal 1005requests a content item or pricing information associated with a contentitem, legal text information may be distributed through a purchase itemfragment. In one or more configurations, different legal texts may beapplied depending on the country of purchase. Thus, if a content item ispurchased in China, service provisioning system 1020 may associate aChinese translation of a first legal text with the purchase itemfragment. Alternatively, if the purchasing terminal, e.g., terminal1005, is located in France, a French translation of a second legal textmay be associated with and/or stored in the purchase item fragmentinstead for the same content item.

In one or more arrangements, legal text information may be communicatedalong with various attributes and elements. For example, legal textinformation may be qualified by country and language elements thatfurther characterize the information. For example, a language elementmay include a code identifying the language of the legal text. Further,a country element may be used to specify a list of one or more countriesfor which the legal text information is applicable. Accordingly, aterminal may further evaluate such elements and attributes whenreceiving and processing legal text information.

The various network nodes (e.g., service provisioning system, ESGprovider and file delivery server) described herein may further includecomponents such as a receiver, a transmitter, storage facilities, RAM,ROM, a processor and the like. The receiver, for example, may be used toreceive legal texts from the legal text provider and the transmittermay, in one or more instances, be used to transmit legal text and/orpurchase information to a requesting terminal.

Additionally, the methods and features recited herein may further beimplemented through any number of computer readable mediums that areable to store computer readable instructions. Examples of computerreadable mediums that may be used include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memoryor other memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD or other optical disk storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic storage and the like.

While illustrative systems and methods as described herein embodyingvarious aspects of the present invention are shown, it will beunderstood by those skilled in the art, that the invention is notlimited to these embodiments. Modifications may be made by those skilledin the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. Forexample, each of the elements of the aforementioned embodiments may beutilized alone or in combination or subcombination with elements of theother embodiments. It will also be appreciated and understood thatmodifications may be made without departing from the true spirit andscope of the present invention. The description is thus to be regardedas illustrative instead of restrictive on the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a processor, acontent item; determining, by the processor, whether the content item isassociated with a legal text element, wherein the legal text elementincludes information related to a legal text; in response to determiningthat the content item is associated with the legal text element,determining whether the legal text element includes a user consentrequirement; and in response to determining that the legal text elementincludes the user consent requirement, prompting a user for consent. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the processor,whether the legal text element includes the legal text.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein based on the legal text element not including the legaltext, determining, by the processor, to obtain the legal text associatedwith the content item.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein obtaining thelegal text associated with the content item further comprises:determining a legal text identifier from the legal text element; andretrieving the legal text using the legal text identifier.
 5. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: determining whether the user consents tothe legal text; and in response to determining that the user consents tothe legal text, transmitting a purchase message to a content provider.6. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to determining that thecontent item is associated with the legal text element, furthercomprising determining, by the processor, whether the legal text elementincludes a country sub-element that specifies one or more countries towhich the legal text is applicable.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising determining, by the processor, to render legal text only whenthe legal text is applicable to the location of the processor.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining whether the userconsents to the legal text; and in response to determining that the userconsents to the legal text, transmitting a purchase message.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting apurchase message to a content provider after rendering the legal text.10. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to determining that thecontent item is associated with the legal text element, furthercomprising determining, by the processor, whether the legal text elementincludes a legal text type attribute that specifies when the legal textis to be rendered.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining, by the processor, to render the legal text prior to playinga purchased or subscribed content associated with the content item.